Off to the Burgundy region - Merry-sur-Yonne - January 23rd

Hurrah, we're still alive! Despite the cold night and no heating, we didn't freeze...it was absolutely fine, thanks to our little sheep. I almost froze my nose off and Jörni put a pillow on his head so his face doesn't freeze! In the morning, a nice warm shower and Jörni spends a long time blow drying his hands, as usual. Then a coffee and off we go. First stop, about 300 meters away, there it is, our bakery. The store is about the same size as our bus and there are about eight people inside, it's all good!

We quickly shop the display and off we go! We drive mostly on national roads and small country roads, although at times we're not sure if it's just a dirt road. We pass through abandoned French villages, past old castles and palaces. We reach the Burgundy region and it welcomes us with sunshine! Although the thermometer shows only 1.5 degrees at times, it's almost warm compared to last night! The landscape here is very beautiful and big cities are far away, pure nature as far as the eye can see, beautiful! After about 240 km and 3.5 hours later, we reach Merry-sur-Yonne, a sleepy little village in the middle of nowhere. The road here reminds us of home, looks like the Bemberg...only better paved...!

There is a small campground here, which is open all year round...even though we really are in the middle of nowhere, crazy! This time we're not alone either, there are eight other campers here with us in the middle of nowhere. The place is really extraordinary! The owners are young English people and that really reflects here, wonderful! When checking in, we see right away that they serve English breakfast, excellent, we'll order that for tomorrow morning. Then we take a walk with the dog through the beautiful area, right along the river, which is frozen in some places. It's even colder here than 240 km further south!!! Jörni would like to buy the lock house and work as a smuggler...well...let's see if the job is still available.

In the late afternoon, we make ourselves a delicious salad and eat the remaining pasta from the day before, slowly but surely all supplies are used up. We eat in front of the bus and it's 2 degrees, the other campers are sitting in their refrigerators and staring stupidly...they're not real campers like us! We look forward to doing the dishes, because we can warm our fingers up again in the warm water. Unbelievable that just under two weeks ago we were roasting in the sun in Tarifa!!!

Afterwards, we retreat to the nice restaurant or the attached bar. It's cozy and warm here, they serve Guinness, perfect, the music is great, I like it! We really feel like we're sitting somewhere in England, it's so quaintly furnished here. Some people are eating something and it smells more than tempting and the menu on the card sounds absolutely promising. This afternoon we had already thought about staying here for two nights, tomorrow the weather is supposed to be sunny and it will be 14 degrees warm...that's practically shorts weather!

So now we enjoy a delicious beer here and then it's off to the bus! Today we even have a space heater, because the electricity is included in the unbeatable price of 14 euros! Our super ACSI card is also valid here!!! If we had known about it before the trip, we would have saved almost 1000 euros...yeah, no kidding! So, anyone traveling in the off-season should not do it without the ACSI card, just a little tip! You never stop learning...! At least now we're saving a bit of money in the last three weeks! Maybe we'll spend it all here tomorrow!

It didn't stop at just one beer in the bar...actually, the closing time here is 10 pm, but David, the boss, and Michael, the chef, invited us to stay longer and suddenly it was 2 am...oops...! But it was very nice, we complained about Brexit together and talked about all sorts of things. You didn't really feel like you were in France, it was more like a day trip to England, towards the end! The night was bitterly cold, the water in the dog bowl outside the door was frozen this morning...!

A quick hot shower and then enjoying our English breakfast in front of the fireplace. Jörni had to lie down again afterwards, while I took a big round with the dog. By noon, we have a bright blue sky and the sun is shining, we like that! We enjoy a coffee on the terrace in front of the bar and then take another big walk with the dog.

We have already signed up for dinner tonight and are now waiting in the bus for it to be 7 pm...then it's time to eat! But then we'll really go to the bus early tonight, because tomorrow we're continuing and we want to cover a lot of distance!